RESISTANCE:

​AN INTERVIEW WITH HINNI HUTTUNEN AND JEMINA LINDHOLM

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Hinni Huttunen and Jemina Lindholm met with Third Space and talked about their project Resistance, which took place in Third Space from the 11th to the 20th of June of 2017.

Here is what they shared with us:

What does the artistic process means to you and how do you see this process in Third Space or even while forming your work? What are the essential elements for you creating art?

The artistic process to both of us and us as a working pair is on ongoing chain of thoughts where work and leisure are blended together. We both have our own artistic practices and our processes vary in many ways, but when we are working together the artistic process is shared and ideas and conventions are combined.

Sometimes certain interests in different subjects lead their way into an artistic process that ends up into becoming an independent work of art. We are often interested in the same subjects and decide to collaborate on them. We believe that working as a part of a collective or as a part of working pair is a more effective way to solve problems (artistic or practical or related to any humane situation), because working together is based on a constant dialogue, where you have to formulate your thoughts, emotions and desires all the time. These continuous conversations IRL and online (a very important sphere of working for us) form the core of our artistic process: we map out our shared passions and interests and share different points of view on them.

Our work as individual artists, feminists and as a working pair is also based on certain values that we believe in and those values also shape our artistic process and practises. For example while working with Resistance (2016) we, the group on the video and our film crew were committed to the rules of safer space during the film set. We have also spent a lot of time in thinking about the power relations that are always related to working with moving image and filming other people.

TOP 5 key elements of our collective work and artistic process are:

1.Careful planning, dividing and scheduling of all the to-do’s2.Being honest of your own schedules and resources3.Good internet access4.Listening of what the other(s) have to say5.Similar sense of humor and taste in visual aesthetics

Considering title of your work “Resistance”, when it comes to art and your work’s context, how do you see this concept relevant in contemporary art related to the societies where we live in? Finland or Sweden? How do you perceive yourself in the society when it comes to resistance?

Art is a source of comfort and rebellion. It is important for us to use art as a way to make space for other kind of ways of living that break and make visible the prevailing norms and power structures of the society.

Resistance is a representation of solidarity, revolution and drumming as a form of activism. The drumming group playing on the video is part of a global drumming network titled Rhythms of Resistance that that supports everyone struggling against exploitation, discrimination and oppression. The different groups play samba music in different demonstrations and direct actions all over the world. As artists our work is based on the same values and we believe that contemporary art is an important part of the resistance against fascism and right-wing nationalism.

Have you had any public performances of drumming and what has been the most astonishing part to you?

We are not part of the drumming group on our Resistance -video. We have attended in various demonstrations where we have heard this and similar groups of drummers play as an act of resistance to the unequal society and the constructions that are increasing the inequality. The artistic process that lead to this artwork started during these demonstrations.

It’s outrageous that it is still necessary to attend and arrange demonstrations that are related to very basic human rights, for example the right to self-determination of gender and our bodies. One of the most astonishing parts is the engagement to human rights and social activism, the straightforward and hands on attitude towards for example creating different platforms that aim to safer spaces and expressions of solidarity for those who are in the need of it. It is empowering how drumming takes over the public space and affects the atmosphere of the demos.

​ (S H I F T I N G P E R C E P T I O N S)

Collective exhibition at Third Space

A group of artists, from How to Inhabit a Transitory Space -experimental course- on Phenomenology of Contemporary Art, show the tangible outcome of their perceptions about the transitory, the inhabitation & its relationship with space through Contemporary Art.Ingrid André, Juste, Laura Tuomi, Melody Jane, Natalia Häme, Pasi Paananen, Paula Ripatti, Saija Lehtola led by Egle Oddo, offer a collective exhibition housed in two galleries: Luova gallery and Third Space Gallery.

​The whole exhibition: Shifting Perception, was a touching experience on perception, philosophy and art, visible in Helsinki from March 31st to April 4th, 2017. ​

In a nutshell we will summarize this interesting conversation:

To approach reality in modern times it is necessary to observe carefully around us. Take our time, put off and look over our cellphone, tablet and computers. We have only few seconds to feel the present, after that we will forget our last thought and although we try to repeat the moment we will never again experiment the same, even if we try to take pictures and capture the moments through video and bring them up to social media for a perpetual present. This time is over. However, reality it's continues. It is a place for possibilities, open for our perception. ​

Third Space. Shifting perception, what has changed after your experience with the art course that you did not notice before?

Melody Jane: This is the second time that I have participated in "How to Inhabit a Transitory Space", which has a different theme and focus each season. On the previous occasion I focused on video. On this occasion, where I have focused on exhibition, I have found that my understanding of the exhibition space and how to adapt to it has strengthened considerably, as has my ability to be flexible and adaptive. One completes a work with their original intent in mind, but must be open to adapting that word and creating new narratives in relation the the space that it is shown within.

Natalia Häme:Attending the course "shifting perception" with Egle Oddo, has been a nice journey to see and feel art in different ways. From the first class of the course personally I had to close my eyes to what is obvious to see, and use my other senses and imagination to understand objects or theories in different ways. I learned that in art it's not only what you see, you need to look deeper in a subject and feel the process of creating a work. Giving attention to small details and feel how they can make a difference.Saija Lehtola: It has been a great reminder that there is always another side and other angles to everything. There is never the right question or a single answer.Paula Ripatti: For a course that I did not notice before to be able to attend and learn many new facts and techniques was quite a pleasant surprise.​Ingrid André: The process becomes clear as we actively work on it. The way will become visible as we start moving the pieces around. Ask questions, give answers, ask more questions, lose the answers. I have learned to stay alert and not anticipate the possible complicatedness of the project but simply to put stepping stones along the way and than suddenly one is on the other side of work, a concrete project.

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Third Space. What does the process of exhibiting your work means to you? How did the process continue in Third Space? ​Melody Jane: One learns more about the work that one has produced by the process of exhibiting it, and in some cases the work cannot be called complete until it has been exhibited it. Exhibition of a work involves making observations that consider its relationship to the space it is placed within, and on the interaction of other people with the work, as well as its relationship to any other pieces in the room. In some cases this leads to further insights about the work and how it can be developed, and adaptation of the work that can take place even as the work is being placed in the exhibition space. With this particular course and exhibition, all of the works are highly experimental and conducted amongst a group of artists with widely different backgrounds, so there is a very strong sense of dialogue between the works which can uncover interesting ideas and relationships that were not previously apparent.

Natalia Häme:Exhibiting my work was something completely new for me. I have to admit that it was a bit stressful but definitely worth it. It's nice to see people's reactions while they are looking your art. It doesn't need to be always a positive reaction tho, you can learn from people when you see, how they see your work.

Saija Lehtola:Exhibiting and showing my work was crucial. It’s not before the work and the viewer meet that the artwork really comes to life. Seeing my work in exhibition gives me another view on it, makes me realise it in a different way. Also to hear the thoughts of the viewers gives an idea of how the work is reaching out. My work in Third Space is part of a work in progress video Con Versation. My journey with this work still continues.

Paula Ripatti:The process of pulling together the exhibition was an experience I have never done before. It was exciting and allowed me to work with new materials and learn different techniques to form a skeletal plan. Third Space helped bring form and life to these ideas.

Ingrid André: As a dancer, performance artist and actress I am used to exhibiting my performing self on a stage, on camera, in art galleries and other spaces. Yet in our group exhibition Shifting Perception, my work consists of an installation made of paintings, sculptures, moving images and other organic elements so not my usual performing self and not my usual structure. Once the installation was ready (is it ever ready I do not know but...), I could stand back and become a witness of my own process. I could observe how my work interacted with the other works and with the audience. That “passive” witnessing is a very interesting situation for me. Yet on the other hand, it is a difficult position to be in because it is passive and I do not have the possibility anymore to act on it.

That process definitely continued at Third Space for me as I decided to leave a trace of my bigger installation there, residuals, clues, an imprint or an echo. So Third Space became an important space for my work and for my experience, a sort of parallel room where I could be close to the work but not too close to not see anymore. I would love to keep a connection to Third Space in one way or another.

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Third Space. How to inhabit a transitory space at modern times without being gobbled up quickly by Instagram?

Melody Jane:Don't use Instagram if that is your primary concern! Put it out of your own mind, and let others make the choice for themselves. You cannot micromanage people's interactions with your work, unless your work is about micromanagement of interactions and experiences.

Natalia Häme:This is a bit tricky in modern times, since Instagram is a fast way to show your work to people. It's fast, easy and cheap. Everyone uses social media more or less in our days and it's true that we live in a "photography age". The idea is to create interesting exhibitions with something unique included, that can't be compared with a photo. Maybe a small performance of your work or just being present in your exhibitions, people always are curious about the artist as well, not only about his/her work. Saija Lehtola:I think it’s about being aware and being critical. Being able to step back but also to step in, and keeping the perception shifting…​Paula Ripatti:I cannot say much in terms of using instagram, since I do not use this application. However, social networks such as these can easily consume you if you don't win the audience's heart first.

Ingrid André: Inhabiting a transitory space requires being very present in the moment and space inhabited and mindful enough to settle fully despite the ephemeral quality of the experience. I think that is a great practice in our modern times, be present no matter for how long or short. Also how to create an impact in a society overwhelmed with images and events...that is question I ask myself.

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Shifting Perception was an exhibition realised in collaboration with Art School Maa, Third Space, Luova gallery, and AAVE circuits.

​Third Space Collective travelled to Tallinn to meet the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia EKKM and to continue conversations for a collaboration in this summer season.

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​EKKM (Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia) is a self-established non-profit initiative, that situates itself somewhere between official state-run institutions and artist-run-do-it-yourself venues.

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This meeting is an outcome and continuation of Frame’s initiative organized in November 16th, 2017 at Third Space to aim to have collaborative contacts between the art organisations and agents between Finland, Estonia and Norway.

EKKM'S members, Marten Esko, Laura Toots, Krill Tulin and Johannes Säre gave Third Space a tour around the gallery, its bookshop and shared with us its future plans and exhibitions. In the month of July, Third Space and EKKM will collaborate in a three day programme that will take place in Estonia and will explore the questions around institutions, non-institutions and their relationship. There will also be a performance and sound art programme that will be announced further along.

A n o n y y m i t O n n e l l i s e t //

H a p p y A n o n y m o u s

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Anonyymit Onnelliset/Happy Anonymous is a project that wishes to challenge the uprising discourses of hate and antagonism, by appropriating one of its most recognizable weapons: the mask.Who is behind the mask?

Through a compilation of thirty-eight short stories collected from eight different cities around Finland, Tuomas and Ninni Korkalo reflect about the subjectivity found inside the representation of “the other”. These testimonies, shown through both video and text, speak about gestures of kindness, uncovered in our everyday life, and how these, when exteriorized, are able to outrun hate speech and the imageries of terror by acknowledging people’s will to do good.The project Happy Anonymous was done in co-operation with journalist Ann-Mari Huhtanen and screenplay writer Janne Rosenvall. With this work they wanted to bring out the open and heartening intensions and experiences that people share with each other in everyday life but which are not so often heard.Tuomas Korkalo had a conversation with Third Space, on the happening of his exhibition and shared some of his thoughts and experiences with us.

When we started this project, I reflected:

“Is it easy to tell a kind of special story from the past?” And I thought,

“It’s really hard, what type of story would I want to tell?

​ We went to public libraries and art museums, that kind of public places, and we just asked people for a story.​

​ First, I was a little bit shy, like, ok…we have three different colours of ski masks,

“What is you favorite color?”​ “ You can choose one!”

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Somehow,

it is very nice that we don’t know about background.

We know nothing, are they rich or poor.

Somehow,

you get rid of that type of mask.

​ Who is speaking?

Who is behind the mask?

Anybody can be a storyteller.​

Initially I made this first mistake,

when I thought the stories had to be really long or really shocking.

But then I realized, they can be very short,

and at the same time very huge for each person.

I’m really grateful for the stories because

they reflect about many important things for all.

Of course I have to keep them as precious things.

Specially nowadays, when more than ever,

we can see hate speech is not anonymous anymore.​

Quite many told, after the shooting of the videos:

“I feel quite nice! And very happy!”

That was a very positive moment.​

​ When hatred and fear are growing in society,

and the violence ceases to be anonymous,

it becomes necessary to trust each other.

​About the artists:

Ninni Korkalo (1982, Helsinki) and Tuomas Korkalo (1978, Rovaniemi) studied Fine Arts at the Imatra Art School (Imatra, Finland), and graduated in 2008. They both work and live in Rovaniemi. By exploring different techniques and media, such as drawing, painting and installation, Ninni and Tuomas are involved in different kinds of socially engaging projects and environmental art. They work in collaborative, individual and interdisciplinary projects.http://www.th1rdspac3.com/happyanonymous.html

P E R P E T U A L R E P E T I T I O N S / / E V E L I N K A S K

An interview with Third Space.

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The space is closed, an aquarium-kind of setting.

Inside the space solitude takes place between the artist and physical matters other than human. The object(s) are detached and alien from the space they are brought to and which they don’t originally belong to.

Energy is a common property to all of them. The amount of energy in the Universe is finite, thus it cannot be created or destroyed. It takes different forms, and becomes a transformative flow between objects.

In the course of 18 hours of performance, repetitive and contemplative actions take place. Time becomes tangible. It is a lonely contemplation, an unpredictable spatial experiment where the artistic process itself is the core of the work.

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​THIRD SPACE:Through 18 hours of performance you were immersed in a solitary journey surrounded only by the inanimate. What type of thoughts occupied your mind during this process? What can we learn from the idea of contemplation inside solitude?

EVELIN: For me, solitariness is a kind of resistance. “When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think as I really think; after a time it always seems as though they want to banish me from myself and rob me of my soul – and I grow angry with everybody and fear everybody. I then require the desert, so as to grow good again”. Nietzsche wrote this. It’s beautiful and poignant note.

When trapped into an empty space with a bunch of banal objects, one has nothing but the self. On the contrary, the everyday world is full of noise and distractions. Noise provides an escape from the self, and from some of our basic but not always so pleasant human emotions such as frustration, loneliness, tiredness and anxiety.Regarding Perpetual Repetitions, my personal thoughts are not relevant for the audience, instead what is relevant, I think, is to understand the concept of solitariness, and what it means in the context of the complex system such as our society is.

T.S: You call your work a “performative installation”. How did the transition of the piece from action to object made you feel? - One of the main focuses of this piece was artistic process. Where in the timeline of your work, did your work transform and acquired a new shape or gesture? Where relies the “end result”?

E: By performative installation I’m alluding to the artistic practice where the “process” is the work of art, and evolves gradually through the artist’s active participation. The process of the formation of an installation, the physical and bodily realities, and the pure human expression are in the principal focus. It’s more about improvisation, the inherent motivation and random occurrences, guided by artist’s intentionality, than any predetermined plan.

The end result, then, is rather irrelevant, since there is none really. You may consider the final installation – the “leftovers” of the 18h process – as the end result, but it is nothing more than one more stage in the whole process, if you know what I mean.

It’s an interesting question, when did the transition from action to object actually happen. I can’t point any specific event. Was there even any? What I’m saying is that the dualism between these two states does not necessarily exist. At the end of the second period of 9 hours of performance, and especially the next day when I arrived to the gallery to view the installation properly, I was surprised how it turned out. I didn’t know exactly what to expect when I first started out. It turned out solid and coherent, everything made sense. So maybe that was the moment when it stopped being in an “active state”, somehow under action, and transferred into object.

​T.S: How did your relationship with each object trigger different emotions? How did you express them? You have any examples?

E: In his texts about sculpture, Herbert Read talks about the flow of energy that passes through all materials and objects. It shifts and takes different forms. Action is then the energy or impulse, which I take upon the objects when I move them around, or simply observe the space and the objects through touch, sight and hearing. The relationship with the objects was foremost physical and bodily. All physical sensations grew somewhat significant in isolation without other human contact.

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T.S: A methodic, meditative and at the same time repetitive type of action and gesture took place during your performance. What is for you, the meaning of repetition?

E: Repetition, for me, has mainly a socio-political context, alluding to a thoroughly politicized, restricted and controlled body in capitalist society. Repetition, then, is something that occurs in systems, where the body is constructed, managed and controlled by the dominant power. It manifests itself in the form of daily practices and routines.

Yet, when repetition is acted out in the context of arts, such as repeating the gesture of picking 180 photocopies from the wall one by one, or walking and repeating the same circle-shaped route, it can bring us closer to consciousness about the body-related discursive practices.

T.S: Time and the way we perform inside it, was an important theme inside your work. How did you perceive it differently?

E: In isolation, the awareness towards passing of time increases. It was interesting to think how the exact same minute manifests itself in different ways depending on who you ask. Our realities, the so-called internal “micro-worlds”, are different from one another, and we can’t never fully understand how the other person experiences the same time and the same place. It’s a sad thought, isn’t it? If you go to a very fundamental level, we are all alone in the end, right?

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T.S: What is the aftermath of this project? How did it change the way you perceive your own practice?

E: In my artistic practice, here, I embrace the unknown. In the beginning it is impossible to say what will it be in the end. I find it extremely liberating and fascinating to create a work of art which is the “process”, meaning, doing and actions can be defined as an actual work of art instead of having a deliverable end-product, objet d’art. Not that there’s anything wrong with this type of working. I’ve just lately become more interested in the concept of temporality in artistic practice.

Repetition is another interesting thing with which I will be working in the future, too. There’s actually a cross-disciplinary art project I’m working on right now together with another artist, a choreographer. We plunge into the concepts of post-capitalism, post-psychoanalysis, body and repetition.

​​Evelin Kask (b.1989) is an Estonian-born visual artist who lives and works between Paris and Helsinki. She’s interested in various layers of knowledge; how it is achieved, constructed and maintained inside a complex system. Her manifests are often released through temporal and spatial site-specific works in which she uses different mediums and materials such as photography, video, sound, performance and sculpture.

What is a Third Space? Who shapes this place? This blog is a door to explore in depth the different practices that build this territory in constant transformation. Here, we can create a deeper insight to the work of the different artists who transit this space.